Our Week of Penguins!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Penguins is one of my FAVORITE units EVER! This week, we've been doing ALL things penguins!! The kids always LOVE this unit...so it's one that I NEVER skip! I first start with the nonfiction aspect of the unit. We use a lot out of my Learning with Penguins unit. We start off with vocabulary. I do a quick over view of what is to come, and I leave these up throughout the whole unit.

We also do a few activities to bring the vocabulary to life....we do a blubber glove. I have 2 bowls of ICE, ICE, ICE water, and one they stick their bare hands in the bowl, and the other they stick their hand in the blubber. The blubber glove is one gallon baggie filled with shortening, and then stick another gallon baggie into the shortening, and create a layered glove. They stick their hand into the inside baggie. They really get how blubber helps them to keep warm!

Another activity is where I have them stick a football (just because that's what I have on hand) in their legs and try to waddle. It is seriously SO funny! The ball keeps popping out, and they realize how much they can NOT walk...lol. I laugh every time.

There is an actual vocabulary "pictionary" in the Penguins pack, but since we already have our vocab journals, then we just always put our vocabulary in this.

We also wrote out our nonfiction summary sheet. (This is in the pack too!). I like using Penguin Chick as my nonfiction book to summarize, but I do read a TON of penguin books. Check out the nonfiction penguin books I have on my shelf for them to peruse.

We use the NF summary form that's in my penguin pack (I use the example that's given because I can never remember exactly what I want to put! haha!)

Then, they took their planning page and they wrote out their summaries. The summary paper is from my penguin unit, but the penguin craft is from Abby's Spelling for all Seasons pack.....because, let's face it. I have not ONE cute crafty bone in my body. I need help. LOTS of help. lol

Also, this week we finished our planning pages for our student books. Next week, they're going to write their OWN book about penguins! Love how they turn out! You can check out last year's books {HERE}.

Also, next week we're going to be starting in on the Fiction part of penguins.... with Tacky! They LOVE Tacky - and I do too...he's sooo quirky!

2 comments

After reading your blog, I added this unit to my wish list (who am I kidding, I will be buying it after I am done on fb). The pictures are wonderful, and I cannot wait to use it with my students! Especially the blubber and the books the kids write! Thanks for the great ideas!